Table 6.

Correlations between the 8 items of the Brief Illness Perception Questionnaire (Brief IPQ) and objective measures of disease status in patients with diabetes mellitus type 2*

Brief IPQ items	Correlation coefficient and statistical significance	Objective measures of disease status
		BMI (kg/m2)	HbA1c (%)	fasting blood glucose (mmol/L)	total cholesterol (mmol/L)	triglycerides (mmol/L)	HDLC (mmol/L)	LDLC (mmol/L)	systolic blood pressure (mmHg)	diastolic blood pressure (mmHg)
Consequences	Spearman ρ	-0.121	-0.029	0.006	0.006	0.057	-0.072	0.058	0.071	0.055
	P	0.057	0.644	0.919	0.929	0.374	0.255	0.360	0.261	0.390
Timeline	Spearman ρ	0.008	-0.025	-0.090	-0.088	-0.096	-0.015	-0.150	-0.073	-0.049
	P	0.899	0.692	0.158	0.164	0.132	0.809	0.018†	0.249	0.440
Personal control	Spearman ρ	-0.101	-0.119	-0.101	-0.211	-0.069	-0.026	-0.152	-0.186	-0.193
	P	0.112	0.059	0.113	0.001†	0.275	0.685	0.016†	0.003†	0.002†
Treatment control	Spearman ρ	0.044	-0.198	-0.151	-0.127	-0.038	-0.027	-0.203	0.000	-0.028
	P	0.491	0.002†	0.017†	0.045†	0.547	0.667	0.001†	0.996	0.657
Identity	Spearman ρ	-0.143	0.050	0.059	0.034	0.110	0.021	0.008	0.013	0.023
	P	0.024†	0.436	0.351	0.589	0.082	0.746	0.894	0.839	0.714
Concern	Spearman ρ	-0.127	0.166	0.177	0.004	0.001	-0.079	0.049	0.031	-0.028
	P	0.045†	0.009†	0.005†	0.949	0.988	0.215	0.444	0.623	0.664
Emotional response	Spearman ρ	-0.136	0.167	0.114	0.054	0.066	-0.066	0.091	0.076	0.007
	P	0.032†	0.008†	0.071†	0.394	0.298	0.299	0.151	0.235	0.907
Understanding	Spearman ρ	-0.113	-0.019	-0.060	-0.091	-0.007	0.037	-0.148	-0.110	-0.169
	P	0.073†	0.762	0.344	0.150	0.915	0.563	0.019†	0.083	0.007†

*Abbreviations: BMI − body mass index; HbA_1c − glycated hemoglobin; HDLC − high-density lipoprotein cholesterol; LDLC − low-density lipoprotein cholesterol.

†Significant correlations.